Well here in Ohio I don't drive my car in the snow because I don't want the salt on the car, plus with summer rubber it would end very poorly very quickly.

width really depends on what size wheel you have and what your goals are. My front and rear wheels are the same width, so I can rotate them to get the most life, plus mine is 100% street car that I want to handle decently well. Straight line performance is not my end goal, so I have balanced tires front and rear. if your rear wheels are wider than your fronts (10.5" rear and 8.5" front for example) you might as well get the wider tires as you can't rotate them anyway. Just my 2 cents, and because of inflation 2 cents really isn't worth a whole lot anymore.